Cars Burglarized Near Quad Houses

Several cars parked along Walker St. near the Quad were found vandalized and broken into Tuesday, and at least two had GPS devices stolen from them.

Cambridge Police Department officers are investigating the case, as it occurred off-campus, and have not taken any suspects into custody as of yesterday evening. It is unknown whether the break-ins were connected.

No crime alert was sent out to the Harvard community, according to Harvard University Police Department spokesman Steven G. Catalano.

A resident of Walker Street, found that her 1999 Plymouth Voyager had been broken into at approximately 7:45 a.m., according to a CPD police report. The passenger’s-side window was smashed and her GPS holder and charger were stolen.

The victim told police that she discovered at least two other vehicles parked along the street were broken into also. The victim, who is a tutor in Pforzheimer House, also sent an e-mail to House residents informing them of the break ins.

According to a second report, an unknown individual smashed the driver’s-side window of a 2007 red Mini Cooper parked near the intersection of Garden and Walker Streets Tuesday afternoon. A GPS device mounted on the console of the vehicle was stolen.

Police withheld the name of the victim, a 26-year-old white male who resides in Scituate, R.I., and did not specify whether he is a Harvard affiliate. The report also stated that a second vehicle parked up the street was found to have a smashed front passenger’s-side window.

CPD spokesman Mark C. Trant said that while the department does not compile official crime statistics until the end of the year, the level of crime around Harvard has remained at its normal level for this time of the year.

“People start targeting this area more often in the fall because students come back so there are more people around,” he said.

He said that CPD has stepped up its vigilance recently, assigning extra bike patrols to the Cambridge campus.

—Staff writer Jamison A. Hill can be reached at jahill@fas.harvard.edu.